Thursday 23 July 2009

Permaculture - YiA - Greenhouse - Bahrija Oasis

Permaculture is an approach to life which incorporates the values central towards the respect and safeguard of the environment when one is pursuing self-development and that of his/her surroundings.

Originating from the idea of a permanent form of agriculture it later developed to reflect a permanent culture founded on a desgin which emulates nature.[i]

Taken from an academic perspective permaculture is educational at the core as it is a process of continuous learning within a holistic view. Thereby, creating opportunities for co-development and self-development, whilst trying to innovate and create by imitating and applying that which nature has already engineered through its diverse forms.[ii]

In this respect Malta is lucky enough to have its own permaculture association which is still in its early days but is already taking action to familiarise the public with this new concept to the Maltese. This is the Bahrija Oasis[iii] which following a succesful weekend workshop with Green Drinks Malta[iv] earlier this year was accepted for Youth in Action Funding[v]. These funds will be used for a project where the participants will be engaged with hands on educational workshops on permaculture. A weekend every month participants are taken to the project site and various aspects of permaculture design are focused upon to allow participants to learn more about biomimicry, organic farming, water retention, natural wind breakers and so on and so forth, whilst helping in setting up this oasis. The site final objective is not for profit but for educational purposes where it is certain to set up a site which reflects most of the design qualities of permaculture to be able to instill such basic biomimic qualities in the public of tomorrow.

This project is expected to last for a year therefore making up 12 workshops. This first of which was piloted before access to the funds were available in the second weekend of July. The turnout of participants is limited to 10 tough this limit is flexible and places are still available.

Obviously, the project will not halt once the funds stop flowing but it is hoped that after the Yia programme community investment will be sought using the knowledge accumulated on site through this project.

So if you wish to join or you are interested to learn more about it send an email to: green.uom@gmail.com

More references [vi]

The next workshop will be set up for next month and place

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